Pleasant Valley High boys tennis team dominates EAL tournament

Chico >> Like the regular season, the Eastern Athletic League boys tennis tournament became simply a showcase of the Pleasant Valley High team's depth and dominance with just Chico able to keep it from being solely about the Vikings.

On a breezy, spring Saturday at the Chico State courts, Pleasant Valley placed three of four doubles teams in the semifinals and six of eight in the quarterfinals for singles.

An unbeaten run through the EAL's regular season was simply the start for PV, the defending section champion as a team that now has a chance for two of its players to compete for the league singles title.

Second-seeded Trenton Nield is already in the championship after beating teammate Jack Lewis, 6-0, 6-0 in the quarters and then taking out Chico's No. 1 player, Matt Weeber, 6-1, 6-3, in the semis.

"It went pretty smoothly today. It was tough in the wind, but I managed to pull through," Nield said. "I don't struggle as much as in the wind with my serve as much as the other people do, so I can use that to my advantage."

Nield's opponent isn't known just yet. The No. 1-seeded player, fellow Viking Donald Hall, had to take the SAT, the college admissions test, on Saturday morning, and he never made it back in time to play his semifinal against Chico's No. 2 player Marcus Schwab.

Instead, those two will start Monday's schedule at the Chico Racquet Club with the semifinal set for 10 a.m. with the doubles semifinals after that and then the winning teams will play for the EAL title. The singles final now is set for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at the club.

The doubles portion was more of the same as Hall and Nield won by default over Las Plumas' No. 2 team and will next face the Vikings' third team of Josh Barnhart and Sam Hall in one semifinal. The other semifinal has PV's No. 2 team of Izik Walsh and Pete Gibson against Chico's No. 1 in Weeber and Schwab.

Schwab and Weeber took their quarterfinal quickly, 6-0, 6-0 against Las Plumas' No. 1 team of Jeff McKeehan and Austin French.

"We're definitely playing better than we did at the beginning of the season," said Schwab of both himself and Weeber, two experienced seniors who have logged plenty of time together on the courts over their high school careers but haven't had as much as they would have liked this season — until recently. "Right now, we're definitely are at our peak."

Schwab advanced to the semis in singles by dispatching PV's Gibson, 7-5, 6-4.

Weeber beat Walsh, 6-3, 6-3, and since Hall had the SAT, he and Barnhart played late Friday night with Hall winning 6-0, 6-0. While he was due back at the courts shortly after noon, Hall never returned, prompting the rescheduling of the remaining singles contests after both the EAL titles were originally planned for Monday.

With so many Vikings advancing, the tournament has pitted teammate against teammate, which could heighten the interest — if not the good-natured bragging rights — the further it occurs.

"It'll be fun," Nield said if he ends up facing Hall in the final. "It'll be incredible. It'll be huge. We both have completely different games. Donald's is like a top-spinning game. Mine's more of a take control game. I like to hit the ball more flat. He likes to hit the ball with a ton of spin and make it jump up. We both like to play offensively. It'll be a good match."

But the Vikings' dominance might just be the beginning. Last year, their incredible depth paved the way to a section team title. This year, they could add to their hardware haul. And likely, this isn't the end of it.

"Next year, we'll have about the same roster. We have a couple good freshmen coming in," Nield said, noting that Barnhart is the lone senior among the Vikings' top six. "We all have at least two more years of tennis."